What do you think?
Rate this book
Night Train
Brevity is the soul of beauty in these tiny masterworks of short short fiction Gorgeously translated by Lydia Davis, the miniature stories of A. L. Snijders might concern a lost shoe, a visit with a bat, fears of travel, a dream of a man who has lost a glass uniting them is their concision and their vivacity. Lydia Davis in her introduction delves into her fascination with the pleasures and challenges of translating from a language relatively new to her. She also extols Snijders’s “straightforward approach to storytelling, his modesty and his thoughtfulness.”
Selected from many hundreds in the original Dutch, the stories gathered here―humorous, or bizarre, or comfortingly homely―are something like daybook entries, novels-in-brief, philosophical meditations, or events recreated from life, but―inhabiting the borderland between fiction and reality―might best be described as autobiographical mini-fables.
This morning at 11:30, in the full sun, I go up into the hayloft where I haven’t been for years. I climb over boxes and shelving, and open the door. A frightened owl flies straight at me, dead quiet, as quiet as a shadow can fly, I look into his eyes―he’s a large owl, it’s not strange that I’m frightened too, we frighten each other. I myself thought that owls never move in the daytime. What the owl thinks about me, I don’t know.
Selected from many hundreds in the original Dutch, the stories gathered here―humorous, or bizarre, or comfortingly homely―are something like daybook entries, novels-in-brief, philosophical meditations, or events recreated from life, but―inhabiting the borderland between fiction and reality―might best be described as autobiographical mini-fables.
This morning at 11:30, in the full sun, I go up into the hayloft where I haven’t been for years. I climb over boxes and shelving, and open the door. A frightened owl flies straight at me, dead quiet, as quiet as a shadow can fly, I look into his eyes―he’s a large owl, it’s not strange that I’m frightened too, we frighten each other. I myself thought that owls never move in the daytime. What the owl thinks about me, I don’t know.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
128 pages, Paperback
Published October 5, 2021
26 people are currently reading
494 people want to read
About the author
A.L. Snijders
41 books24 followersThe Dutch writer A.L Snijders, pseudonym of Peter Cornelis Müller (Amsterdam 1937), was the master of the Very Short Story (Zeer Kort Verhaal, ZKV). He published columns in several newspapers since the 1980's. Editor Thomas Rap published them in 4 books in de nineties. Since 2006 the columns have been republished in several books.
In November 2010 A.L. Snijders received the Dutch Constantijn Huygensprize for his entire oeuvre, but specifically for his Very Short Stories.
A.L. Snijders lived in Klein Dochteren.
In November 2010 A.L. Snijders received the Dutch Constantijn Huygensprize for his entire oeuvre, but specifically for his Very Short Stories.
A.L. Snijders lived in Klein Dochteren.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
January 18, 2022
Ahh! I love these stories! Lydia Davis undoubtedly superimposed her voice when translating these; she makes A.L. Snijders into her rural dutch doppelgänger, but do we have a problem with that? No! No we do not! The brevity of these simple stories gives them so much space to expand into larger philosophical meditations. Snijders' most common theme of observing his relationship to farm animals is earthly, funny, and powerfully authentic. Night Train is all too easy to devour, but worth savouring.
April 10, 2022
Who better to translate the very short stories of a master of the form—A. L. Snijders—than another master of the form—Lydia Davis? Snijders has written 1,500 very short stories out of a total of 3,000 stories, and Night Train is the first time his work has been made available in English. Whether the very short story is an elaboration upon James Joyce’s notion of the epiphany or is a relatively logorrheic form of haiku, I don’t know, but epiphany and haiku seem to form the parameters of this format: concise depictions of dreams, events, exchanges with strangers, observations of animals on his land, and so forth.
As an example, here is the entirety of “Accountant”:
I walk through the floodplains of the Ijssel looking for my glass eye, which has fallen out of its socket. I find the eye and see the old man who is always thinking about camel drivers in Outer Mongolia and silkworms in the Chinese Empire. Standing eye to eye with him, I ask him if he is a dream. He nods. I ask him what a dream is. He says: ‘That you think you can see me with your glass eye.’ I ask: ‘Am I dreaming you right now?’ He says: ‘Yes, at this moment I’m sitting in my accounting office in Deventer—you do know I’m an accountant, don’t you?’
Charming, whimsical, and recommended.
For more of my reviews, please see https://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/...
As an example, here is the entirety of “Accountant”:
I walk through the floodplains of the Ijssel looking for my glass eye, which has fallen out of its socket. I find the eye and see the old man who is always thinking about camel drivers in Outer Mongolia and silkworms in the Chinese Empire. Standing eye to eye with him, I ask him if he is a dream. He nods. I ask him what a dream is. He says: ‘That you think you can see me with your glass eye.’ I ask: ‘Am I dreaming you right now?’ He says: ‘Yes, at this moment I’m sitting in my accounting office in Deventer—you do know I’m an accountant, don’t you?’
Charming, whimsical, and recommended.
For more of my reviews, please see https://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/...
March 15, 2022
Many small pleasures. Lydia Davis' intro is fascinating, and the translations are smooth.
February 10, 2022
I borrowed this, thinking the very short stories would be more like Etgar Keret's flash fiction: funny, absurd, slightly off-kilter in a lovely way.
Nope. It's mostly a book of paragraph-length reflections that sound like what a white guy in finance who believes himself a writer would jot down in his day planner.
The translator is equally snobby, bragging about her lack of experience with Snijder's native tongue. Exactly.
Nope. It's mostly a book of paragraph-length reflections that sound like what a white guy in finance who believes himself a writer would jot down in his day planner.
The translator is equally snobby, bragging about her lack of experience with Snijder's native tongue. Exactly.
April 18, 2022
I found this collection of short stories originally written in Dutch in Elliott Bay Book Company before leaving Seattle and it has proven a comfortable companion in my disorienting, enchanting first month in the Netherlands. The very short stories contained some lines that were so devastating I had to catch my breath. I also felt that I gained a greater understanding of Dutch culture, character, places. And along with all this, Snijders imbued the stories with an amazing sense of humor. I won't forget this book, and will likely return to it as my understanding of this place evolves.
Read
September 3, 2021Snijders, writing in Dutch, created a new form of "very short stories." He packs a lot of detail into each two or three paragraph story, while never being pretentious or overly verbose. Apparently Snidjers read one of these stories every Sunday morning on Dutch radio. I envy their adventurous public broadcasting!
I was skeptical of the translation after reading Lydia Davis' self-deprecating intro, but in the end I think she did a fine job. (I'm a monolingual ignoramus, so who knows it that's really the case.)
I was skeptical of the translation after reading Lydia Davis' self-deprecating intro, but in the end I think she did a fine job. (I'm a monolingual ignoramus, so who knows it that's really the case.)
July 9, 2023
I loved those bite-size stories that were seemingly about nothing. There is such simplicity and wisdom to them. Nothing is amiss but nothing in excess either. Things are described as they are, accepted without protest, sentimentality and storm of emotions. Writing like this is deceptive. Sooner or later one is bound to think - I could do that! But it takes a lot of skill and a good eye for detail to write something simple yet profoundly moving. To scrape away the noise and be left with the quintessence of a person, situation, season, or object. A.L Snijders has achieved this.
November 5, 2021
Highly recommend this collection of very short stories.
Read
February 13, 2026I was happy to discover another Dutch author and I usually enjoy short stories so the very short stories concept was intriguing but unfortunately it didn’t work for me as I didn’t know if they were fictional or not and whatever they were, only a couple of them caught my interest.
As someone who has studied foreign languages and is now trying to learn Dutch as I live in the Netherlands, I was maybe more interested in the introduction written by the writer and translator Lydia Davis about her process to translate Dutch, that she didn’t even know as a language before.
As someone who has studied foreign languages and is now trying to learn Dutch as I live in the Netherlands, I was maybe more interested in the introduction written by the writer and translator Lydia Davis about her process to translate Dutch, that she didn’t even know as a language before.
Read
December 28, 2025very ordinary and dull but perhaps i am simply in a bad mood. i wish to like lydia davis very much
January 30, 2022
Really pleasant collection of very very short stories, most a page or less.
The surprise of the book is how modest these stories are.
They're overwhelmingly autobiographical, not imaginative, definitely not flashy, and they're not plot-heavy either. They contain little surprises, and they're discursive, which is a funny thing to say about a 200 word story. They often marry unlike subject matter in clever (or elusive) ways. They rarely address intense subjects, like love or death. Several of the stories address the lack of adventure in his own life, contrasting himself with friends and neighbors that travel the world or enjoy dangerous hobbies. Neither are they a series of wordy would-be poignant observations. He's more interested in the sheep that are pastured down the road, or a poem he half-remembers from decades ago.
"In my life almost nothing has happened, but I don't know if I should be sorry about that."
If there's a downside it's that the stories can sound a little bit like the dispatches in my local smalltown paper, which regularly publishes banal but sweet reports by elderly correspondents in nursing homes and such. These aren't banal, even when the observations are not exactly novel, he approaches them from interesting angles. Mostly these little stories are full of wisdom and good humor; at a minimum, they're enjoyable, and frequently the flow and structure is pleasingly surprising. They do vary a lot - they're not formulaic in the slightest, and some directly address the art of the writing, the nature of truth and fiction, or other heady topics. In just a line or two Snijders can turn one of his quotidian views into a mini-rumination on larger subjects.
The translation from Dutch is by Lydia Davis, who does not speak Dutch. Her introduction, in which she explains how she came to translate works from a language that she does not know, is itself a work worth reading and chewing over. I just finished her much-lauded translation of Swann's Way, which I think is how I found this book. I could only guess at how well or how poorly she does it, but I can only say that Snijders' voice in her words is consistent and evocative.
The surprise of the book is how modest these stories are.
They're overwhelmingly autobiographical, not imaginative, definitely not flashy, and they're not plot-heavy either. They contain little surprises, and they're discursive, which is a funny thing to say about a 200 word story. They often marry unlike subject matter in clever (or elusive) ways. They rarely address intense subjects, like love or death. Several of the stories address the lack of adventure in his own life, contrasting himself with friends and neighbors that travel the world or enjoy dangerous hobbies. Neither are they a series of wordy would-be poignant observations. He's more interested in the sheep that are pastured down the road, or a poem he half-remembers from decades ago.
"In my life almost nothing has happened, but I don't know if I should be sorry about that."
If there's a downside it's that the stories can sound a little bit like the dispatches in my local smalltown paper, which regularly publishes banal but sweet reports by elderly correspondents in nursing homes and such. These aren't banal, even when the observations are not exactly novel, he approaches them from interesting angles. Mostly these little stories are full of wisdom and good humor; at a minimum, they're enjoyable, and frequently the flow and structure is pleasingly surprising. They do vary a lot - they're not formulaic in the slightest, and some directly address the art of the writing, the nature of truth and fiction, or other heady topics. In just a line or two Snijders can turn one of his quotidian views into a mini-rumination on larger subjects.
The translation from Dutch is by Lydia Davis, who does not speak Dutch. Her introduction, in which she explains how she came to translate works from a language that she does not know, is itself a work worth reading and chewing over. I just finished her much-lauded translation of Swann's Way, which I think is how I found this book. I could only guess at how well or how poorly she does it, but I can only say that Snijders' voice in her words is consistent and evocative.
November 14, 2023
'The daughter tells us that as an eighteen-year-old boy her father went off over the water in a little boat to paint and then forgot everything. I think, “How splendid life is.” She tells us that for two and a half years he had worked on the moors as punishment, he did not want to be a soldier. I think, “How much men are capable of.” She says: “A real father you were not.” I think: “What a splendid sentence.” It sometimes happens that language is so seductive that its surface beauty lays a hermetic screen over its content. Thus is the content preserved, a later explanation never penetrates. And so it is with these six words, which have a perfect tone, and a mysteriousness that can come to full bloom only through a farewell.'
The comparison to Lydia Davis is easy, but perhaps lazy. Snijders seems to be on a similar mission to chronicle the daily life in short, heartbeat sized stories, but does so with a very different eye than Lydia Davis. Snijders seems more "zen" in a way, but it is that lack of zen-ness that gives Davis the edge for me. Snijders doesn't offer pronouncements (though they're hinted at), but rather a point-of-view that is sui generis: he can talk about the "parallel world of the mole" in a way that sparkles with insight but also remains grounded in reality. He seems to be saying, "and so what?" at the end of stories in a way that both annoyed and enchanted me. It's not the nihilist's "so what," but the child's "so what." Does any of this make sense? I don't know. So what? Make your own meaning.
The comparison to Lydia Davis is easy, but perhaps lazy. Snijders seems to be on a similar mission to chronicle the daily life in short, heartbeat sized stories, but does so with a very different eye than Lydia Davis. Snijders seems more "zen" in a way, but it is that lack of zen-ness that gives Davis the edge for me. Snijders doesn't offer pronouncements (though they're hinted at), but rather a point-of-view that is sui generis: he can talk about the "parallel world of the mole" in a way that sparkles with insight but also remains grounded in reality. He seems to be saying, "and so what?" at the end of stories in a way that both annoyed and enchanted me. It's not the nihilist's "so what," but the child's "so what." Does any of this make sense? I don't know. So what? Make your own meaning.
August 5, 2025
In The Elm Trees
After the storm I cycle through the woods to see if the Vrauwdeunt family is still in the land of the living. I'm friends with this couple Janus and Emilie Vrauwdeunt. Their humble little house lies deep in the woods, reachable only by those who know the way. So many trees have blown down that after a hundred meters I can no longer get through with my bicycle. I leave it behind and go scrambling on. The house was not struck, but it was a close call, Janus and Emilie are already sawing with a large two-person saw dating from World War II. They were in fact born before the war, Janus in 1935, Emilie in 1936. They are sober people, they are old but do not yet make use of the neighborhood care system. I would like to congratulate them, but I don't do that, it is not for nothing that they have lived more than half a century in great solitude. They nod to me and continue sawing. Later, when weariness has won out, they invite me into their kitchen after all, to have a cup of coffee. What kind of tree are you sawing, I ask. An elm, says Emilie but we call it an _olm_. An owl appears in my brain: "The owl sat in the elm trees..." My memory refuses to cooperate any further, Emilie helps me: "...as the night was falling, and back of yonder hills came soft the cuckoo calling." After the coffee they continue sawing, but I am left with the sudden mystery of yonder hills.
After the storm I cycle through the woods to see if the Vrauwdeunt family is still in the land of the living. I'm friends with this couple Janus and Emilie Vrauwdeunt. Their humble little house lies deep in the woods, reachable only by those who know the way. So many trees have blown down that after a hundred meters I can no longer get through with my bicycle. I leave it behind and go scrambling on. The house was not struck, but it was a close call, Janus and Emilie are already sawing with a large two-person saw dating from World War II. They were in fact born before the war, Janus in 1935, Emilie in 1936. They are sober people, they are old but do not yet make use of the neighborhood care system. I would like to congratulate them, but I don't do that, it is not for nothing that they have lived more than half a century in great solitude. They nod to me and continue sawing. Later, when weariness has won out, they invite me into their kitchen after all, to have a cup of coffee. What kind of tree are you sawing, I ask. An elm, says Emilie but we call it an _olm_. An owl appears in my brain: "The owl sat in the elm trees..." My memory refuses to cooperate any further, Emilie helps me: "...as the night was falling, and back of yonder hills came soft the cuckoo calling." After the coffee they continue sawing, but I am left with the sudden mystery of yonder hills.
October 31, 2023
Every few months I check the reviews for this book, hoping it has become hugely famous. Not yet. Damn. Lydia Davis has translated about 90 of A.L. Snijder’s very short stories. There are at least a 1000 more. I want them. I wait impatiently.
Last year I read this book 3 times. This year only once. When I read this book I think, “This is enough. This is all I need.” I do not know if I am right, but when I read these stories I feel that the anecdote is most profound and human form of literature.
John Cage’s “Indeterminacy” stories made me feel this way. Or Lydia Davis at her best. These very short stories do not resemble what is hideously and accurately called “flash fiction”. I suppose they are “meditations”, but to call them that is to obscure their most charming quality, their unassuming humility.
These stories are so quiet and so elegant. Small but at the same time large. I do not need anything more. Except -- I DO need the 900 or so stories not yet translated. Lydia Davis, herself a treasure, is likely busy. Somebody please -- translate more of Snijder’s stories for me.
Last year I read this book 3 times. This year only once. When I read this book I think, “This is enough. This is all I need.” I do not know if I am right, but when I read these stories I feel that the anecdote is most profound and human form of literature.
John Cage’s “Indeterminacy” stories made me feel this way. Or Lydia Davis at her best. These very short stories do not resemble what is hideously and accurately called “flash fiction”. I suppose they are “meditations”, but to call them that is to obscure their most charming quality, their unassuming humility.
These stories are so quiet and so elegant. Small but at the same time large. I do not need anything more. Except -- I DO need the 900 or so stories not yet translated. Lydia Davis, herself a treasure, is likely busy. Somebody please -- translate more of Snijder’s stories for me.
June 29, 2022
NIGHT TRAIN: VERY SHORT STORIES, es una recopilación de noventa relatos cortos y ultra cortos, a cargo del escritor holandés A. L. Snijders.
Snijders escribió más de tres mil ZKV'S (relatos muy cortos, como él mismo los denominó) que anidan en su experiencia de vida; hay poco espacio para la ficción, pero mucho para la comedia, la ironía, el ensimismamiento y la reflexión. Es excepcional la fusión que logra entre la anécdota típicamente auto ficcional, la fábula pura y el aforismo; este último estilo literario, abordado de un modo contemplativo. Es un tremendo acierto que la traducción al inglés esté a cargo de Lydia Davis, connotada autora dentro de la Flash Fiction y cuyo estilo empata perfectamente con el espíritu literario de esta obra.
A. L. Snijders puede no sonarle a la gran mayoría de lectores en el mundo y, seguramente, no ganará el premio Nobel de literatura —sobre todo porque falleció recientemente—, pero, sin duda, es un autor indispensable para aquellos que disfruten de leer o escribir en el género del microrelato.
Snijders escribió más de tres mil ZKV'S (relatos muy cortos, como él mismo los denominó) que anidan en su experiencia de vida; hay poco espacio para la ficción, pero mucho para la comedia, la ironía, el ensimismamiento y la reflexión. Es excepcional la fusión que logra entre la anécdota típicamente auto ficcional, la fábula pura y el aforismo; este último estilo literario, abordado de un modo contemplativo. Es un tremendo acierto que la traducción al inglés esté a cargo de Lydia Davis, connotada autora dentro de la Flash Fiction y cuyo estilo empata perfectamente con el espíritu literario de esta obra.
A. L. Snijders puede no sonarle a la gran mayoría de lectores en el mundo y, seguramente, no ganará el premio Nobel de literatura —sobre todo porque falleció recientemente—, pero, sin duda, es un autor indispensable para aquellos que disfruten de leer o escribir en el género del microrelato.
December 13, 2022
I've been wanting to read more short story collections, so when I stumbled across this book of 'very short' stories in an oxfam bookshop, I thought this would be a perfect reintroduction to the form. Unfortunately these stories were incredibly underwhelming and mundane. They are translated from the Dutch original by Lydia Davis who introduces herself as a self-proclaimed non-speaker of Dutch (this should have been a red flag from the beginning) - I am sure a lot of the poetry, wit and meaning is lost in the haphazard and literal translation, but I also think the mundanity of the stories is down to the fact that this is essentially an autobiography of a man I have no familiarity with or interest in. I think the blurb mis-sold what this collection really is, as I had been hoping for fiction and had I known it wouldn't be a traditional short story collection, I probably wouldn't have been as disappointed. (The fact it took me 4 months to finish an 150 page book is a pretty good indicator of how engaging it is as a text).
January 11, 2022
𝘕𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘣𝘺 𝘈.𝘓. 𝘚𝘯𝘪𝘫𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 • 2021
“𝐼 𝓈𝒶𝒾𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹𝓃’𝓉 𝑔𝑜 𝓁𝑜𝑜𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓁𝒾𝓉𝓎, 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒶𝓈 𝓂𝓊𝒸𝒽 𝒶𝓈 𝓅𝑜𝓈𝓈𝒾𝒷𝓁𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝓁𝑒𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓇𝑜𝑜𝓂 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝒾𝓂𝒶𝑔𝒾𝓃𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃.”
★★☆☆☆ • (2.75)
Night Train is a collection of translated short stories from Dutch to English. A.L. Snijders was well versed in the “zkvs” (zeer korte verhalen” ), which is Dutch for “very short stories.” I’m unclear if he pioneered its creation or was merely a popular contributor of the coalition. A good portion of the stories range anywhere from a few paragraphs to a page.
I find the idea of these bite-sized narratives charming and unique in comparison to the conventional short stories readers consume today. Snijders stories are often autobiographical, revelatory, and amusing. He reflects on wisdom and its relation to old age, distant memories, stories of friends & strangers, and the latent mysteries of life. His writing style is incredibly readable and leisurely. His sentences are short and direct. He doesn’t bother to tout any jazzy literary devices.
Unfortunately, most of the stories lacked appeal. I had hoped there’d be more depth. Perhaps, something useful I would have learned or ruminated on to come away with. The collection as a whole doesn’t strike me as memorable. Most of of Snidjers’ stories recalled moments dating back to historical periods. Most notably the 19th century.
I can’t see this appeasing a majority of a contemporary audience. The true prize of this title lies in the translation process, which Lydia Davis speaks to at large in the introduction. To learn that she heavily relied on cognates and knowledge from other languages to translate this book is fascinating. It’s evident just how significant Snijders was when it came to the much loved “zkvs.” I can appreciate his dissimilar approach to the classic short story that many readers know and love.
“𝐼 𝓈𝒶𝒾𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹𝓃’𝓉 𝑔𝑜 𝓁𝑜𝑜𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓁𝒾𝓉𝓎, 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒶𝓈 𝓂𝓊𝒸𝒽 𝒶𝓈 𝓅𝑜𝓈𝓈𝒾𝒷𝓁𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝓁𝑒𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓇𝑜𝑜𝓂 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝒾𝓂𝒶𝑔𝒾𝓃𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃.”
★★☆☆☆ • (2.75)
Night Train is a collection of translated short stories from Dutch to English. A.L. Snijders was well versed in the “zkvs” (zeer korte verhalen” ), which is Dutch for “very short stories.” I’m unclear if he pioneered its creation or was merely a popular contributor of the coalition. A good portion of the stories range anywhere from a few paragraphs to a page.
I find the idea of these bite-sized narratives charming and unique in comparison to the conventional short stories readers consume today. Snijders stories are often autobiographical, revelatory, and amusing. He reflects on wisdom and its relation to old age, distant memories, stories of friends & strangers, and the latent mysteries of life. His writing style is incredibly readable and leisurely. His sentences are short and direct. He doesn’t bother to tout any jazzy literary devices.
Unfortunately, most of the stories lacked appeal. I had hoped there’d be more depth. Perhaps, something useful I would have learned or ruminated on to come away with. The collection as a whole doesn’t strike me as memorable. Most of of Snidjers’ stories recalled moments dating back to historical periods. Most notably the 19th century.
I can’t see this appeasing a majority of a contemporary audience. The true prize of this title lies in the translation process, which Lydia Davis speaks to at large in the introduction. To learn that she heavily relied on cognates and knowledge from other languages to translate this book is fascinating. It’s evident just how significant Snijders was when it came to the much loved “zkvs.” I can appreciate his dissimilar approach to the classic short story that many readers know and love.
December 2, 2024
The more time I spent with A.L. Snijders’s very short stories (zeer korte verhalen), the more I found them to be mirrors of my own mood/state. If I got to them first thing in the morning with a fresh mind, they felt artful and moving, taking ordinary scenes of Dutch country living and presenting them as beautiful, candid vignettes. Transforming mundanity to profundity, the everyday to the poetic. But at night with a little less energy and focus, the stories could land flat and maybe a little boring.
I guess one’s mood impacting their relationship with any book isn’t all that uncommon. With that said, the modesty and brevity of these pieces do seem specifically designed to inspire reflection and allow for personal readings/interpretations.
Also, Lydia Davis’s introduction in which she explains how she came to translate these stories despite not speaking or reading Dutch is a fascinating glimpse into the process of a great literary mind.
I guess one’s mood impacting their relationship with any book isn’t all that uncommon. With that said, the modesty and brevity of these pieces do seem specifically designed to inspire reflection and allow for personal readings/interpretations.
Also, Lydia Davis’s introduction in which she explains how she came to translate these stories despite not speaking or reading Dutch is a fascinating glimpse into the process of a great literary mind.
December 31, 2021
There is a strong sense of place in Snijders’s very short stories. They are anchored in the landscape and geography of the Netherlands, relatively speaking a “very small” country that under his pen appears much vaster (just like his very short yet expansive stories). The very short stories are a genre of their own - you could think of them as prose poems, or contemporary fables… I think of them as “very long haikus”, if one considers a haiku as 2 or 3 parallel lines that come to intersect in the reader’s imagination. There are often two or three parallel stories in Snijders’ very short stories — their connection is often unclear and oblique, and the work of imagining connections is part of the reading pleasure.
April 24, 2023
A collection of short prose pieces concerning visits to garden centres, conversations with strangers, and encounters with Dutch wildlife. Nothing much happens, but everything really happens, for here is the entire mental life of a man rooted in place. Snijders famously didn’t travel, so translator Lydia Davis brings him to the world instead. These quaint observations on rural life in the Netherlands should appeal to fans of Robert Walser, even if the sentences themselves fall short of the Swiss master’s luminous prose.
December 25, 2021
"In my life almost nothing has happened, but I don't know if I should be sorry about that."
I loved this collection of very short stories (which Snijders himself calls “zkvs”) that zoom in on the small stuff of life—crossing paths with animals, chance encounters with strangers, meeting an acquaintance after decades apart, everyday fables, images that remain in the imagination—allowing them to take on much greater resonance. A magnificent little book about the microscopically sublime.
I loved this collection of very short stories (which Snijders himself calls “zkvs”) that zoom in on the small stuff of life—crossing paths with animals, chance encounters with strangers, meeting an acquaintance after decades apart, everyday fables, images that remain in the imagination—allowing them to take on much greater resonance. A magnificent little book about the microscopically sublime.
March 23, 2023
A charming collection of micro-stories about Dutch rural-bourgeois life, intelligently sequenced here by Davis and the editors. Witty, colloquial, and self-reflexive without ever feeling clever-clever. It makes sense that these were written for the newspaper: they have a diaristic, slangy quality about them, whilst remaining artful. I only wish there were more about Snijders’ mischievous chickens.
October 11, 2022
“The dream is not a goal, a finishing line, applause, profit. The dream is not about exertion, four thousand hours of work has already been done on it. For a dream, slaps on the back are superfluous, a bonus unknown. The dream is a migratory bird. In the solitary house in the delta someone is standing at the window, he is looking at migratory birds, he tells no one.”
December 2, 2021
A quirky collection of "slice of life" style stories. Some pieces were more memorable than others, but Snijders is consistently charming and witty throughout the book. Props to Lydia Davis for this artful translation!
December 3, 2021
These "very short stories" were a refreshing and quick read with moments that both made me stop to think and opportunities to actually laugh out loud. I loved this a lot, making no bones about its unvarnished style while still coming across moments of great importance.
January 27, 2022
I spent a week in the Dutch countryside this past October and reading this book felt like revisiting that region. Ambient recollections with a touch of humor and play. Like a diary that promises to not always tell the truth.
June 1, 2022
Good, solid writing and the translation is strong. Some stories were little gems and offered unique insights or observations on the human condition, and the language was poetic, a few pieces were bland or repetitive. I tend not to review books that I’d rate less than 3 stars so…
February 29, 2024
This one upsets me to rate it this low. It has all the comments I would typically love in a book (Ultra Short stories I can just rip through.) But the prose was simply not there. I assume it has to be a translation issue. But who knows?
April 5, 2022
Delightful little stories, meanderings, wanderings to and through bits and pieces of a foreign culture.
June 22, 2022
I found a few of these "zkv"s to be charming but overall, this was a disappointment for me.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews